[WikiEN-l] Copyright question

[Anthony]

On 4/9/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 9 Apr 2007 08:03:09 -0400, Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org>
> wrote:
>
> >I'd say there's probably a large degree of philosophical opposition to
> >the idea of copyright over a collection of 4 groups of 20 or so names
> >of cars - not as much over the idea of copyright itself.
>
> You think.  I think it's reasonable to assert that a list which is
> compiled according to novel criteria is itself subject to copyright. I
> have no problem with examples from each category, the entire list I
> find problematic.
>
A list which is compiled according to novel criteria probably is
itself subject to copyright.

But I think a lot of people have a philosophical opposition to *that*.
 Not to copyright itself, but to copyright being granted to an
unordered list of things someone thinks is cool.

Again, I'm not denying that copyright protection probably is available
to such a list.  Just that it's ridiculous to do so, and that it
doesn't really matter because use of such a tiny amount of copyrighted
materials is almost always fair use, especially in the context of an
encyclopedia article about it, distributed by a non-profit charity.

Anthony